Simon Oh

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

From the RailPAC team, we present to you some of the best rail-related stories we’ve read over this past month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

Starting with this edition for the first month of 2017, RailPAC introduces this new series on our blog to highlight the best rail-related stories over the last month.

In between editions on this space, you can also subscribe to our weekly emails sent out every Monday, featuring rail-related news articles from California and beyond. Subscribe to this free e-newsletter by sending your name and email address to Noel Braymer.

That being said, here are some of the best stories selected from the RailPAC team from January 2017:

From an email sent by Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman on Jan. 4, 2017. His full email is reposted below. Only changes to the repost is the formatting, ensuring clarity when reading.

Special Employee Advisory from Wick Moorman – Organization Update

With a new year ahead of us, I want to share some initial thoughts with you about the future of our company and the actions we are taking to improve our organization.

As I’ve been learning about the company in my first three months on the job, I’ve come to see that there is a lot that is working well at Amtrak, starting with the quality of our people. I’ve also gained a deeper appreciation of the importance of our services to customers across the country. Americans want and need a strong national passenger rail service, and the hard work that all of you have put in during the past decade to modernize and improve our service, including our record performance last year, has translated into broad public support for Amtrak and our mission.

Looking ahead to 2017, it is vital for us to capitalize on this success. We have a terrific opportunity to build an even more efficient and effective company that can facilitate, organize and operate best-in-class passenger rail services throughout the United States. To do so, we need to be structured properly, and having reviewed our organization and evaluated our future needs with our Board, I believe this is the time to streamline and improve our reporting structure.

Therefore, we are pleased today to introduce a new organizational structure for Amtrak that will enable us to create greater product and customer focus, along with strengthening accountability and decision-making throughout our company. This new structure aligns with our focus to improve the way we do business, modernize and enhance the customer experience, and invest in our future. While changes to an organization are never a “silver bullet,” the right structure is a necessary first step to driving the five key objectives that we believe are critical to our long-term success:

Building a world-class safety culture with a relentless focus on training, risk-reduction, positive reinforcement and personal accountability;

To support our pursuit of these objectives, we are making the following changes:

Senior Executives

We are consolidating the senior team into six direct reports to the CEO, effective immediately. This change will streamline decision-making, increase alignment between departments, and establish clear areas of accountability.

These six groups and their respective Executive Vice Presidents are:

Operations – Scot Naparstek, Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Marketing and Business Development – Jason Molfetas, Executive Vice President

The Operations group will be reorganized to strengthen our focus on safety, service delivery, productivity and capital project execution.
The product development, planning, and contract management functions of the current Business Lines, certain customer service functions and some onboard service personnel for certain products will be transferred to the new Business Development and Product Support and Management organizations within the Marketing and Sales group. Train operations will be managed regionally through Vice Presidents of Operations and supported by Safety, Compliance and Training; Mechanical; Engineering; Network Support; Amtrak Police; and Corporate Security organizations. Additionally, certain planning and station and facility functions will be transferred to the new Planning, Technology and Public Affairs group.

All departments and functions currently within Operations will continue to report to Scot Naparstek, COO, until February 1, 2017. At that time, the following new and existing departments and functions will report directly to Scot and all previous organizations will be merged within this structure or transferred to other groups:

Department/Function/Leader

Operations, East
Michael DeCataldo, Vice President

Operations, Central
To be announced

Operations, West
Jay Commer, Vice President

Mechanical
Mario Bergeron, Chief Mechanical Officer

Engineering
Rodrigo Bitar, Chief Engineer

Safety, Compliance and Training
Dave Nichols, Vice President

Network Support
Robin McDonough, Vice President

Amtrak Police
Neil Trugman, Chief and Assistant Vice President

Corporate Security
Susan Reinertson, Assistant Vice President

Further details regarding changes within the Operations organization will be announced later this month.

Marketing and Business Development

The newly formed Marketing and Business Development group will be expanded from the current Marketing and Sales department to create greater focus on the development and management of our key products and streamlined to align this work with Amtrak’s broader marketing and branding efforts. The product development, planning, and contract management functions of the current Business Lines and customer service functions within Operations, together with certain staff from the Government Affairs and Infrastructure and Investment Development groups, will be transferred to new Business Development and Product Support and Management organizations within this group.

All departments and functions currently within the Marketing and Sales organization will continue to report to Jason Molfetas until February 1, 2017. At that time, the following new and existing departments and functions will report directly to Jason and all previous organizations will be merged within this structure:

Department/Function/Leader

Northeast Corridor Business Development
Mark Yachmetz, Vice President

State Supported Services Business Development
Joe McHugh, Vice President

Long Distance Services Business Development
Mark Murphy, Vice President

Passenger Experience
Tom Hall, Vice President

Product Support and Management
To Be Announced

Marketing
Rob Friedman, Vice President

In addition, a newly formed group for Commuter and Ancillary Services Business Development has been created, and will be led by Paul Vilter, Assistant Vice President. Paul will report to Mark Murphy.

Further details regarding changes within the Marketing and Business Development organization will be announced later this month.

Finance

The Finance department will continue to report to Jerry Sokol, CFO, with further organizational changes to come within the department over the coming months. Procurement will now report to DJ Stadtler, CAO, effective immediately.

Law

All departments and functions currently reporting to the Law Department will continue to report to Eldie Acheson, GC.

Administration

As the new Chief Administration Officer, DJ Stadtler will be responsible for a newly-named Human Resources department. The new HR department will be developed from the current Human Capital organization and led by Byl Herrmann, Vice President, effective immediately. Byl will assume this role from Barry Melnkovic, who is retiring from the company. I want to thank Barry for his years of service and dedication to Amtrak.

Further details regarding changes within the Administration organization will be announced later this month.

Planning, Technology and Public Affairs

The new Planning, Technology and Public Affairs group will bring together the network and corporate planning, infrastructure access, government affairs and corporate communications and strategy groups. It will also include fleet planning, real estate, and various station and facility management, maintenance and development functions to better coordinate the long-term development of the company’s key assets and services. In addition, IT will be integrated into this group, as it is an essential function for our current operations across the country, as well as a driver of our future success.

All departments and functions currently reporting to Stephen Gardner will continue to do so, with IT now reporting to Stephen as well, effective immediately.

On February 1, 2017, Stephen’s new organization will include the following:

Department/Function/Leader

Planning
To be announced

IT
Ghada Ijam, Chief Information Officer

Government Affairs and Corporate Communications
Caroline Decker, Vice President

Real Estate, Stations and Facilities
Bart Bush, Vice President

Further details regarding changes within the Planning, Technology and Public Affairs organization will be announced later this month.

Additionally, as part of these changes, we will simplify our titling for senior officials by adopting a three-level titling structure of Executive Vice President, Vice President and Assistant Vice President to apply to all such positions.

I understand that many of you will have questions about these changes. We will follow this announcement up with more information as it becomes available, and I’d ask for your patience, continued focus – especially on safety – and dedication to our mission as we work through this transition.

On behalf of our entire leadership team, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done so far to make Amtrak successful. You are an important part of our continued success and I’m excited for the journey ahead of us, starting with the launch of this new organization.

About Us

Our Mission is to promote the development of a modern, sustainable, environmentally friendly passenger rail system through education of the public and government officials.
Our Vision is a comprehensive rail network of long distance, intercity, and regional trains, supported by and integrated with local transit, bicycle access, and pedestrian friendly stations.
We accomplish these objectives via print publications, electronic media, testimony at government hearings, direct contact with elected and agency officials and conferences.